Parents Using ChatGPT to Rear Their Children

"They're asking ChatGPT how to handle behavioral problems or for medical advice when their kids are sick, USA Today reports, which dovetails with a 2024 study that found parents trust ChatGPT over real health professionals and also deem the information generated by the bot to be trustworthy. It all comes in addition to parents using ChatGPT to keep kids entertained by having the bot read their children bedtime stories or talk with them for hours."

"The ages of kids being exposed to ChatGPT and its advice is clearly dropping. Some 30 percent of parents of school-age children used ChatGPT back in 2023, and that number hasundoubtedly gotten bigger. A pediatric doctor told USA Today that if parents still want to use ChatGPT, despite all the known negatives, they must practice due diligence with the information that the bot generates and use it with a "critical eye" because of the technology's propensity for sycophancy and hallucinating fake answers."

""It's a tool and it's incredible and it's getting more pervasive," Chief Medical Officer Michael Glazier of Bluebird Kids Health in Broward County, Florida told the newspaper. "But don't let it take the place of critical thinking... There's a lot of benefit for us as parents to think things through and consult experts versus just plugging it into a computer." Glazier also advised parents to use ChatGPT only as a jumping-off point, and to ultimately consult with a medical expert."

Parents increasingly use ChatGPT for child-rearing tasks, from handling behavioral problems and medical questions to reading bedtime stories and entertaining children for hours. A 2024 study found many parents trust ChatGPT more than real health professionals and judge its output as trustworthy. The technology's sycophantic tendencies and propensity to hallucinate can intensify delusions and breaks from reality, a phenomenon linked to multiple suicides including teenagers. Use among younger children is growing; about 30 percent of parents of school-age children used ChatGPT in 2023 and usage likely rose. Medical professionals advise treating ChatGPT as a starting point, practicing due diligence, maintaining critical thinking, and consulting medical experts. Privacy risks also warrant caution.

Read at Futurism